(Toronto, ON) – The Spoons are, beyond any doubt, one of the front runners of the Canadian New Wave scene. High School sweethearts Gordon Deppe (composer, singer, and lead guitarist) and Sandy Horne (bassist and backing vocals) along with band mates Rob Preuss (keyboards) and Derrick Ross (drums), were fresh faced kids, barely out of High School when they made their mark on the Canadian music scene.
In 1981, Spoons released their freshman album titled Stick Figure Neighbourhood (engineered by Daniel Lanois) which gained frequent rotation on college radio stations with the songs “Conventional Beliefs” and “Red Light”.
This was the precursor to their next album released one year later called Arias & Symphonies, which spawned 3 top 40 hits such as “Nova Heart”, “Arias & Symphonies”, and “Smiling in Winter”. “Nova Heart”, their smash hit, found its place on the charts with Led Zepplin, the Who and Queen. Their new found eminence allowed them access to opening slots for major acts like Simple Minds, Culture Club and Police.
Nile Rodgers, producer to the stars (Duran Duran, David Bowie, Madonna) was at the helm for their third album released Talkback. This album charted a couple of hits “Old Emotion” and “The Rhythm”.
“Romantic Traffic” and “Tell No Lies” were later written to satisfy the demands of their US record label A&M, who, after hearing the pair of songs loved them and felt they had the potential to break through the American market. As fate would have it, circumstances beyond the Spoons control occurred and the songs never saw the light of day south of the border. Both “Tell No Lies” and “Romantic Traffic” later found their way onto the soundtrack for the film Listen to the City, in which Horne was featured in a supporting role. However, Listen to the City was not a Spoons album, as it consisted largely of instrumental music and was credited solely to Gordon Deppe.
Although their mark may not be as prominent these days, the Spoons still enjoy playing an assortment of festivals and shows, showcasing new material mixed in with their classic hits. The line up has changed slightly with newer members Casey MQ (keys) and Chris McNeill (Drums) added to the roster.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Gordon Deppe earlier this week. Here’s what he had to say:
Sue – Thank you for taking the time to do this interview with Music Life Magazine!
Gord – My Pleasure!
Sue – How did the band come up with the name Spoons?
Gord – At the time a lot of bands where using objects as names. We just sort of took an everyday object and made something new out of it. Bands like the Cars had done it, obviously the Beatles and there was a band in Toronto called the Dishes and the Muffins. You know, taking an everyday object and making something new out of it. We didn’t really think it through that much. We were having lunch one day over a bowl of soup and there you go, it was right in our hands.
Sue – Have you heard of the band from the UK called Spoon? What are you thoughts regarding the similarity is names?
Gord – Well there’s lots of Spoons out there. A bunch of them. There’s a heavy metal band, and all girl band and that’s fine. Back in the 80s we were more concern about it, and you actually had to work these things out. Sometimes even pay people off to get them to stop using the name. These days people aren’t so worried about it. And it fine. Maybe it will bring some new people to our site.
Sue – I was surprised to hear the vast array of different music genres that influenced you growing up, such as Alice Cooper at one end of the spectrum all the way to Simple Minds at the other end. What do you attribute this large shift in influences?
Gord – I think just growing up, just what you like. I don’t tend to look back. I’m not really a fan of retro or classic Rock. I like new music. I’m always influenced and intrigued by new sounds and direction and usually things come full circle anyways. The whole retro 80s brought back that sound and brought out new bands that have those elements in them. I like to see how the same thing is re-invented from 20 30 years ago. Being a musician and a writer it’s good to be sort of flexible and like different things.
Sue – Do think the launch of MuchMusic contributed to your success growth? Were you aware beforehand that the Spoons were going to be within the top 3 videos played at the launch of the channel?
Gord – No, not at all! I didn’t know that until many years later, and how much of an influence we were. I didn’t know until recently how far reaching that was and how pivotal that show from the Concert Hall we did was. It kind of changed the face of Music TV in Canada. So I’m proud to be a part of that. Like a lot of things when you’re young and a part of the 80s you sort of went along for the ride. I didn’t really realize what was going on around me. I was caught up in the moment and that’s one of the main things I found out while writing the book is how I realized a lot of things that I was oblivious to.
Sue – Romantic traffic is such a catchy song that even people who are not necessarily followers of the spoons know the chorus. Did you ever anticipate when writing this song that it would be so well received and easily recognizable?
Gord – No. I’m one of these self doubters. Every song I’ve ever put out I’ve always said “Oh what are we doing? This is not going to do anything”. Maybe because at the time songs like Nova Heart which came out when Queen, Led Zeppelin and the Who were on the charts. I would never in a million years think it would do anything! So I was as surprised as everyone else. But in Romantic Traffic, there was something about the simplicity of that little hook. I kind of new it was catchy, but never thought it would do as well as it did. I’m glad to see how every generation seems to catch that and embrace that simple one syllable thing.
Sue – Was the the Romantic Traffic video difficult to film considering it was done during business hours?
Gord – It was. It was a little tricky. We had a rep come with us from the TTC and they had to make sure things didn’t get out of hand. We were only able to shoot in each location for a short time because a crowd would start building up. They would say ok jump on the train, to the next stop. We had to keep it rolling, because behind the camera there would be a crowd building up. Sometime we would grab a couple of them and have them be in the video. We were on the move all day long.
Sue – There was a shoe string budget for the Romantic Traffic video compared to Tell no lies. Comparing the two now, would you say it held it’s own even with the limited budget?
Gord – It’s my favourite one of all the videos that we did . Because it’s so honest, simple and true, and shows so much about us in it. Maybe because there wasn’t a script. You know how when you go into a video with a script you have to act. This is just us being ourselves. Sandy and I had just broken up. So much came through in that because there was no script. It shows the different characters, it shows Derricks silly side with the funny dances and Robs innocence.
Sue – Tell no lies and Romantic Traffic where written to be more radio friendly within the American market. Suddenly with changes at A&M, the Spoons where dropped, thus not releasing those two songs. Can you elaborate why no other american record company where permitted to release these songs?
Gord – It was a horrible thing. I didn’t kind of relive that until I wrote the book. I realize how much of a pivotal time it was. Those songs were never released in america. Imagine if they had and had the same success as it did here. I might be calling you from my private island in the caribbean. It’s such a shame. A new guy came in at A&M and dropped the whole roster. And we were a part of that. It was a shame because the old people that were there before when we gave them Romantic Traffic and Tell No Lies loved it. They were overjoyed because it was exactly what they thought was needed to break through America. Even within the Talkback album, with the song Old Emotions they thought is was too alternative and avant guard. That was the nature of the business. Not only would those songs not be released by that label, but then they would keep them. They wouldn’t even release them to anyone else.
Sue – Why was it so difficult during the 80s as a Canadian band to succeed in the American market?
Gord – I think a lot of the Canadian bands were better than the American 80s bands. At least from the style that I liked, the British genre. They had their own bands but they were more Rock orientated. I think we were a lot more influenced by the British movement, because of CFNY FM radio here and a lot closer to that scene. Lots of 80s bands from Britain had some of their biggest fans and followers from Canada. They were very in tune with that whole scene. Often we were mistaken to be a part of that. We sounded so british that people assumed we were also from England. America was very closed door when it came to that. It has obviously changed now . There’s a lot of Canadian acts doing well down there now. It wasn’t an open door policies back then. It was a lot of hard work. We did some big tours that were huge successes. But then on the other hand we went down with Human League that had a #1 hit on Billboard which was huge. And that tour got cancelled before it even started because they weren’t selling out. Americans were not accepting of bands from Britain let alone bands from Canada. They were still in more of their Rock stuff. We did a tour with Survivor and they hadn’t had a hit since Eye of the Tiger which was years before but yet they were selling out arenas. Yet there was a band that was number 1 from england, yet couldn’t sell a tour. I don’t really quite understand it. It certainly was odd.
Sue – The band faced many challenges on the road within the US. Specifically other bands messing with your equipment settings and pulling fuses. What did you learn from that experience?
Gord – Ha! Ha! Ha! Well luckily that didn’t happen again. But it did make us a little bit more careful. That happened to be our first show in America. It was almost like “Welcome to America”! We were a bit more hesitant about trusting people. We left to go to our hotel and after we set up our gear and the opening band sabotaged all our stuff. They turned up all the volumes up to 10, pulled a fuse out of the back of Robs amp, they messed up all our cables. It was unbelievable! We were naive and coming from Canada, where everything runs smoothly and everybody is very trusting of each other. You work with the bands you were on stage with, and these guys had it out for us. I don’t even think they even knew who we were. They didn’t like a bunch of Canadians coming down and stealing a part of their turf. That was the one hiccup that happened, and nothing really happened again that was as severe. It was like a band hazing.
Sue – 2012 a 30 year anniversary reunion of original members occurred. How was it like playing with the original line up? Did you reminisce of days gone by?
Gord – Oh yeah it was surreal! We hadn’t been together on stage from 26 years. Every moment I soaked it up. It was so nice and how good it felt. The new guys are great too but there’s something about your old chums together again. And we had another reunion this past December (2014) for the 30th of Romantic Traffic and Tell No Lies, and we had the whole thing filmed. So a documentary will be coming out shortly available to our fans. Which is most of our show as well as behind the scenes interviews, talking in the studio and rehearsals. It’s a really nice little package that shows us all together again. We are taking pre-orders on the Spoons site now.
Sue – Looking back throughout your career, is there something that you now perceive as being cringe worthy? Can you elaborate?
Gord – On man… most of the 80s were cringe worthy. It was like 10 years of Halloween! You know we did some silly things. We can laugh about some of the hair and clothes, that was part of the times. Musically I’m pretty happy with what we did. It’s standing the test of time. I’ll never cringe about anything we did musically. We did a year long endorsement deal with Thrifties clothing stores. That involved tv commercials, radio commercials and giant posters across the stores. That was a bit cringe worthy since at the time nobody else was doing endorsements like that. Now everybody is doing it. Everyone has their own perfumes and their own line of clothes, but back in the 80s we got a lot of flack from that. Especially from the industry people saying we were selling out. But they didn’t realize that we were in between record deals and it kept us afloat for that year. It paid for the Tell No Lies videos. It subsidied the whole tour. We had better record signings at thrifties stores then record stores.
Sue – Active throughout the 80s then in the 90s took a 20 year break to focus on family. Did you play casually during this time?
Gord – It wasn’t that long of a break. We still played a few festivals but the beginning of the 90s we had to call it quit because of grunge was big. But I was guitar player so I kept playing. I had solo bands and never stopped playing. I’m glad I wasn’t a keyboard players because there was no work left for keyboard players. It was all about guitar. I kind of liked it. We never said the Spoons broke up. Instead of playing 50 times a year we played 10 times a year at festivals. Before the 90s were over we starting popping up on all these best of lists. Around 1995 there was a hint that the retro 80s was going to happen. We went on tour for the Collectible Spoons best of CD and the reaction to that was so unexpected. That was the beginning and I thought it would be a little phenomenon but no it kept building from then on. So we pretty well had 5 years of downtime before it all came back. But it did take 20 years to record anything new. We just kept playing the old hits. I even threw in a couple of songs that I did with some of my solo bands and threw them into the set. I just didn’t think it was time to do another record. But then I saw other 80s bands like Duran Duran coming out with new stuff, I thought we can do this. Band like Killers and Interpol, came out and we thought maybe there’s a second life for the Spoons.
Sue – What prompted the SpoonFed book? Was it easy for you to write? How long was the process?
Gord – The first time I thought about doing a book was in 1995 for the Collectible Spoons when I had to write liner notes for that CD. The record company said to write some little stories and recollection from that time and then I had a big fold out of 4-5 pages of little stories. I realized then that there’s some stuff here. Then I realized there may be some potential for a book here. So throughout the years I started writing things down, posting things on the FB Spoons blogs and people kept saying we want more of this. I just took those and filled in the gaps and I had a book. It started a long time ago. I would write casually here and there but it wasn’t until the last year that I really went gang buster.
Sue – Are the Spoons playing any festivals this summer?
Gord – Starting this next month is going to be crazy, with festivals, more theatre shows and private gigs. We are also playing for the Pam Am games. Check out of website for details.
Sue – Thanks for taking the time to chat today. We really appreciate it!
Gord – My pleasure!
Past members included:
Steve Kendry – Drums
1986-2010
Steve Sweeney – Keyboards
2006-2010
Rob Preuss – Keyboards
1980-1985
Derrick Ross – Drums
1979-1985
Scott MacDonald – Keyboards
1986-1990
Collin Cripps – Guitar and Saxophone
1986-1987
Brett Wickens – Keyboards
1979-1980
For more info on the Spoons please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/thespoons.ca?fref=ts
Written and Photographed by Sue Sadzak
Images were photographed at the Seneca Queen Theatre. (Niagara Falls, ON)
Contribution Credits: Lanissa Cooper
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As a fellow Aldershot alumni from the 1973-1976 timeframe, I have always found it interesting as to the musical turns that Gordon has taken over the years. He will no doubt have NO RECOLLECTION whatsoever as to our conversations during that timeframe, but I remember us discussing music and the abilities of the guitar to take on various personae, wielded by him, during our walks to and from Aldershot to North Shore towers?? I believe. He seemed to be a Jimi Hendrix afficianado at the time, which was all the more surprising to me in the years to come given the musical style demonstrated by Gordon Deppe and his fellow bandmates.
I have a special place in my Canadian heart to this day for the much under-appreciated Spoons, and I’m hoping to catch them live one of these days if the winds blow rightl